Bochner formulas, functional inequalities and generalized Ricci flow

Abstract

As a consequence of the Bochner formula for the Bismut connection acting on gradients, we show sharp universal Poincaré and log-Sobolev inequalities along solutions to generalized Ricci flow. Using the two-form potential we define a twisted connection on spacetime which determines an adapted Brownian motion on the frame bundle, yielding an adapted Malliavin gradient on path space. We show a Bochner formula for this operator, leading to characterizations of generalized Ricci flow in terms of universal Poincaré and log-Sobolev type inequalities for the associated Malliavin gradient and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operator.